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Internet mega-brands Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, and YouTube agree on a "code of conduct" with the European Commission to remove "hate speech" from their networks in less than 24 hours. This update does not necessarily hold these companies accountable the same way a hard-and-fast written law would in any one individual country. Instead, this would be more of an agreement - a hand-shake - between the companies to combat hate speech. According to this code of conduct, they'll be "developing counter-narratives promoting non-discrimination, tolerance and respect, including through awareness-raising activities."

We've known since February that the UK wireless carrier Three has had plans to block advertising on mobile devices. Today the company outlined their strategy by announcing that they would offer 500,000 of their customers the opportunity to opt-in to a test of this service, which will happen sometime next month.

It's been less than two months since Blizzard announced that they would be taking legal action against the popular Vanilla World of Warcraft server, Nostalrius. Private MMO servers have been shut down plenty of times, and they usually close down with little fanfare. However, this case is very different, and just yesterday, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime sat down to discuss it with a former WoW developer.

Today in light of the surprising lack of iPhone leaks and relative deluge of details we've seen unofficially so far, I'd like to share what I'm hopeful for in a new iPhone. The next iPhone, one we'll safely assume will be called iPhone 7, will be a device - I hope - of unparalleled processing power and battery life. It'll have a better camera and a slightly modified body, and of course it'll have a display that's better than before. But what's more than that, most important to me - it'll have a little more freedom.

Did you know that Microsoft is offering a free upgrade to Windows 10? If you use Windows 7 or 8, you definitely know about this. I'm confident in saying that, because Microsoft has made it nearly impossible to not notice this, thanks to any number of different pop-ups asking you to upgrade. Their latest attempt to trick users into upgrading has received a lot of backlash, but the company is standing by it.

At Google I/O last week, Google dumped some rather big news, at least one of them expected. Android apps are come full force to Chrome OS, with Google Play Store even. Instant Apps were quite the unexpected surprise, but in retrospect Google had already sown the seeds as far back as 2013. But in the midst of the applause and hopeful cheers, there were also some murmuring and the raising of eyebrows. Is all of these just a subtle, cunning ploy by the Web search giant to make Android tablets obsolete, or, in the long run, even phase out native Android apps?

This week at the SID Display Week 2016 trade show we've gotten up close and personal with Samsung's new rollable screen, just one of several next-gen inventions in display technology. But this is just another in a long line of demos of such "transforming" or "curved display" tech from Samsung, LG, and the rest, right? Not so fast. Now that Samsung has proven their ability to deliver the goods with devices like the Galaxy Edge, the company is expected by the public to deliver on concepts like these with more speed. The time is now!

Remember when you had to pay for the number of text messages that you were allowed to send and receive each month? It seemed pretty absurd at the time, especially when you consider just how little data is actually transmitted for each message. But the price wasn't there to offset the cost of transmitting each text message. Instead it was used as a way for the phone companies to earn additional revenue while driving down the cost of their most basic plans.

Why would Apple consider adopting a hardware and software model similar to Google's ChromeOS for an Apple Chromebook? Would that be absolute madness? Or would Apple be smart to make use of the ecosystems of apps it already has in place in new and interesting ways? We've not yet seen Google's newest move with ChromeOS take shape in the wild, it's clear that there's some real interest in adopting - nay, accepting - apps made for Android coming to a desktop environment. Now is the time when Apple should open the path from mobile to laptop.

Today we've come across a patent for a new version of a device that you may have heard of before. It's the Apple Pencil. What's that got to do with the Samsung Galaxy Note 6? One very key element - the S Pen. What it can do, what it can't do, and what we're going to expect it to do now that Apple has (finally) presented a stylus of their own. The patent we're seeing makes the Samsung Galaxy Note's S Pen look like no more than a decent first attempt at a higher-level stylus device. Can they both write and draw? Sure. That's where similarities end. See our Samsung portal for the most updated word on this device.

Friday, I talked at length about how Oculus seemed to be shooting themselves in the foot. This was largely in response to a new update for the Rift that included some particularly annoying DRM. This DRM checks to see if you have an Oculus Rift physically attached to your computer, and if it doesn't it prevents you from opening the game. Only a few days have passed, and their hard work has already been undone.

While Apple's next iPhone seems to show little potential for great change, Google announces Android software integration with one of their most forward-thinking projects ever: Tango. Apple has built a massive consumer following with the idea that their iPhone is reliable, secure, and ubiquitous - unavoidably present in the public eye. Google, on the other hand, creates the software that manufacturers of all sorts then use to create their own, unique smartphones. This week, Google announced that they'd be adding Tango software to the next version of Android. This could change the public's expectations for a great smartphone entirely.